Seattle man arrested at Sea-Tac after 'hook-up' goes bad

BY LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 11:13 pm, Monday, May 12, 2014

A Seattle man arrested waiting to board a plane at Sea-Tac Airport is now accused of biting and beating a date he met on a sex app.

Jailed following a violent arrest at Sea-Tac Airport, Curtis Rosenblat is alleged to have beaten a man with a hammer after setting up a date on Grindr, a gay hook-up service. King County prosecutors charged Rosenblat, 23, with assault earlier this month in the March 22 attack.

Writing the court, Deputy Prosecutor Michelle Larson said Port of Seattle police were forced to shock Rosenblat with Taser during his arrest Wednesday.

“The defendant is clearly a danger to the community,” Larson said in court papers, noting that Rosenblat appears to have been splitting his time between Washington and Massachusetts.

Rosenblat “attacked the victim out of the blue with a hammer,” the prosecutor continued. “When the hammer was not enough, the defendant then began to viciously bite the victim.”

According to charging papers, the other man picked up Rosenblat at 3 a.m. near his Lake City apartment after exchanging messages over the Grindr mobile phone application.

The men searched without success for a secluded spot to have a liaison, a Seattle detective told the court. They then went to Rosenblat’s home to have sex.

Both men were nude when Rosenblat attempted to eject the other man from the apartment without his belongings, the detective continued. A brief struggle ensued, and the other man attempted to grab his belongings when Rosenblat stepped out of the room.

Rosenblat returned with a hammer in hand and began beating the other man with it, the detective told the court. At one point, a woman in the apartment broke up the fight briefly; the attack is alleged to have continued, though, as the by-then injured man fled.

Called by the other man, police arrived to find him bleeding from hammer wounds and bites he received during the altercation, the detective said in court papers. His eyelid had to be surgically repaired, and a head wound he received was stapled shut.

Rosenblat had fled by the time police arrived. According to charging papers, the woman who witnessed the incident told police Rosenblat later admitted to her that he “wanted to get the guy’s stuff,” and attacked him to do so.

Facing a second-degree assault charge in the March incident, Rosenblat has also been charged with assaulting a police officer related to his conduct at Sea-Tac. He remains jailed on $115,000 bail.